I’m sure you’re all bored with Froyo by now, what with it having been officially available on one device for two days now, so its time to move on to Gingerbread and fortunately Eldar Murtazin of mobile-review.com just outed a whole slew of fun new details about the forthcoming Android OS update.

Lets start with the release date which he pegs as mid-October with the first handsets releasing with the update in either late November or December. (For those keeping score at home this also coincides perfectly with the recent rumor from BGR that Verizon is planning to out their first LTE devices on November 26th.)

Secondly Google will be establishing a minimum specification threshold for devices to run Gingerbread and beyond. Chief among these are a 1GHz CPU, 512 MB of RAM and a display of at least 3.5″. So any device that doesn’t meet these requirements will be hitting the end of the line at 2.2 (barring intervention from the rom developers).

Support for a new resolution of 1280 x 760 will be available for devices with at least a 4″ screen. This should prove especially useful for the Android tablets due from Motorola, Samsung and LG by years end.

As we heard previously, the UX is the chief focus for the update and should eliminate the need for the “skins” (Blur, Sense, TouchWiz, etc…) that manufacturers currently enjoy slapping on top of Android. Murtazin indicates that the current software which most closely approximates the feel of the new UX is the Gallery App found on Android 2.1. With the hiring of UX expert Matias Duarte, of Web OS fame, and the Bumptop acquisition we are likely going to be looking at a whole new face for Android with Gingerbread.

The establishment of a “you must be this tall to ride this Android” standard is probably the most significant and potentially controversial news in this leak.

If Google is to bring about the end of Android fragmentation then slowing the pace of major updates and establishing a base line hardware to build off are both critical and necessary steps in my opinion, but it both ends the update path for many devices, including several released this year, and at least limits Androids ability to run the gamut of low to high-end devices.

So as we catch a few more glimpses of the framework of Google’s Gingerbread house do you like the way things are taking shape and is there anything you feel they are still neglecting?

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I sounds very interesting…It’ll be nice to see what more they come up with for the new UI. This does not bode well for those with older/lower end devices, but, that’s life…keep up with the times, or be left behind. Innovation is key.

I agree but how can be possible that the Droid 1 is going to be left as a low end device??
That is what makes me really mad since Droid is the reason why android got so popular and now is going to be left as a low-ended device

The commercials for Droid may have caught your attention but like many of us Android phones have been out for quite some time now. Just get a new phone if you want the new system. I am on my 3rd handset and I’m sure It won’t be my last. Currently I’m on a Nexus One but I hear Motorola is in the works of a 2ghz model that may be the next phone I’m using. *shrug I have my old Atari in the closet, but I’d rather play on my XBox!

That’s garbage. Who the heck wants to have to buy a new handset every 6-9 months? Without subsidies they run $500-600 bucks.

Before the Motorola Droid came out, Android was a fringe/techno-geek operating system. The Droid brought it into the mainstream and brought it to the masses. Now 9 months later Google wants to brand it as “low end”? What a F’ING joke. The Droid’s hardware is just as good if not better than the N1′s. The 3430 CPU/GPU in the Droid is equal or better than the Snapdragon CPU/GPU combo. And when you over clock the Droid as many have, it’ll smoke the Snapdragon.

It’s very difficult these days to give a strict cut-off in terms of MHz, especially with mobile phone type CPUs. Different architectures perform differently at different MHz. It’s entirely possible that the Droid’s CPU/GPU is powerful enough to run Gingerbread, and if so I’m sure that Verizon and Motorola will put it on the phone.

Well you could say the same thing about the G1, which started it all. If that didn’t sell as well as it did, we might not have seen Droid at all, yet that device is left behind as well. And I would also argue that the flood of Verizon advertising and the Droid LINE helped make Android more popular than the actual first Moto Droid itself.

it sounds to me like they’re trying to pull a microsoft, with a guideline on how the phones should be built and with the abolishment of custom UI skins. i mean a 1ghz cpu for every Android phone sounds great but why do they have to leave all the G1, legend, Hero etc. users out of the Gingerbread House? i wanna taste it no homo… i have an HD2 and it sounds bad even to me.

Well G1 owners should be nearing the end of their contract anyways. As far as others, Moment has already been stopped, so has Hero variants. That leaves Droid…which will be getting a refresh next quarter. Not too many should get left behind. 2.1 is an able update. Has everything 2.2 has except JIT and tethering.

And seeing as all Gingerbread will be is a UX update, there won’t be any app incompatibility since all phones will cap out at 2.1 at the least.

This is the natural evolution of technology. You can only take a Model-T so far into the future! If the G1 and all 1st & 2nd gen. Android phones, had a user replaceable CPU/GPUs and Memory, then there might be a bright future left for them.

Or maybe Google is looking to attract more iPhone fans by doing what apple does to them, by having the CEs release new “Evolutionary,” (slightly changed) hardware, every year. ;)

they are doing this to better the operating system… who wants a nice clean UI that beats the hell out of a G1 because it’s not capable of running it. this is like saying “why cant I play DVD’s in my vhs player” or “this ps3 game wont work in my ps1″ just accept you need a new phone to run the new software, it’s life and if you dont like it then go buy an iphone so the least of your worries is the software…

Its sad to hear that Gingerbread won’t be coming to legend, G1, hero, eris, etc… but its understandable. We can’t have the older phones slow down and hinder development to the Android OS. What I do hope to see is that the Android 3.+ will be for the higher end hardware, while the Android 2.+ versions continue development to stay compatible with Android 3.+. That way the older androids won’t be left totally in the dark.

I see that some people (dzitran) feel that the G1and “older phones slow down and hinder development to the Android OS”. However, if you can have the OS run (even with their “ancient” sub 600Mhz CPU’s) on these older phones, think of how much faster it (the OS) will run on the newer 1Ghz minimum phones. It increases the base user population (read: Market Share and let’s be honest, every company wants more market share. Google included).
If I could run Android 3.0 on my G1, when my contract is up, I don’t necessarily need to upgrade my phone. It still works and run the newest OS.
Think of all the people looking to get Android on their phones. The new 1Ghz CPU phones are cool, don’t get me wrong. But does everyone (like maybe your mom and dad) need a phone that powerful? What about the myTouch3G Slide? The perfect G1 replacement, right? Well, if Android 3.0 comes out in, say, December, then a phone that’s just barely 7 months old, won’t be able to run Android 3.0. It would be a shame and I hope that Google at least considers the older generation of phones.

Well Steve, just because an “Older” phone is not eligible for the latest OS release, does not mean that the phone will suddenly stop working or will fail to be a usable device. There are still devices being released with 1.5 on them! Does that mean that they serve no purpose at all?

These are just tools. It’s the apps that make them powerful tools. Do you now and will you for some time to come, have more usable apps available to you, than you can possibly load onto that older phone? If it servers the purpose that it was intended, then I say, get your monies worth of value out of it. The repeat the cycle with a newer more capable tool.

Before iPhone and Android when did you ever here about major phone OS updates? How many phones have you owned that never received any new functionality? I think that the majority of people with an Android phone won’t care that their OS is not the newest. In fact many people may be relieved that their phone is not suddenly changing on them. People just want to use their phone for what ever purpose they have found it useful for. I’m willing to bet that all of this complaining about not having the newest and slickest version of the OS is limited to about 1-2% of the Android population.

You say older phones, Now the legend is only 3 months old, and already it has been left behind, My HTC Desire just barley makes the cut! And that is only 4-5 months old too, Also the even newer HTC Wildfire won’t make it (I know its a “budget” phone) I know mobile tech is a rapidly developing market but seriously? If 3.1 or 4.0 require a dual processor in a years time I will be rather annoyed if im honest with you.

Is your current computer a single core pentium II CPU running at 800Mhz with 640MB of socketed DRAM with a 20GB Segate IDE AT Hard Drive, a 16 Color VGA ISA card and a 10 Mb ISA network card all wrapped in a XT style case with a a 14″ Tube monitor, running DOS and maybe Windows 3.1?

No? Why? Were you mad that you needed to replace things on this PC? I’m just kidding around here! But I hope you get the point ;)

I know you are probably not an Apple PC user, our you would be VERY used to this kind of stuff! ;)

Our “older,” devices do not go dead on Dec. 31 2010! (at least I hope not, because THEN I WOULD BE MAD!)

The newer software and capabilities will eventually drive us all to upgrade. It is the age old rat race! We should all be used to this story by now!

But Google hasn’t confirmed or even indicated that Gingerbread is un-skinable. Think about all the launcher apps that totally revamp the way Android looks that reside on The Market. Google has allowed them to exist, and encourages them. All of Android OS is opensource. It has been, it is, and it will contonue to be so. As such, anyone can take Android and skin it how they want. And is the need for hardware requirements surprising at all at this point? Really? Even now, the possibilties of the G1 ever getting anything higher than what its at officially is limited by its hardware. Because of limited ROM and RAM. The more sophisticated the OS becomes, the faster the hardware needs to be. This is the same thing that has happened with Intel Processors and Windows. The hardware would innovate, and the software would have to catch up, and then the software would innovate, forcing the hardware to play catch up. This will forever be the role of software and hardware. As things change, as Android, or iOS or webOS grow up, they will always require better hardware. Its easy to sit back and moan and groan and point fingers but that’s how it is. Simple as that. So instead, let’s sit back, and look forward to Google trying not to ban companies from molding android, but to make it so they don’t really have to. That’s what openess is about. Choices. How many phone publishers out there won’t put Android on their phones simply because stock android can be intimidating to figure out, and because they don’t have either the know how or the resources to skin it like Sammy and HTC and regrettably Motorola have done? Its a smart business move on googles part. Its time to put that the new guy to work (here’s looking at you Palm UI guy) so that he can make Android as naturally polished in its Vanilla flavor as rival OS’ UI’s are (again iOS and webOS have long established themselves on ease of use and polish). You could also look at it this way: In each subsequent version of android, more and more features and functionality were tossed in that OTHER COMPANIES DID FIRST. What am I talking about? Well when android 1.5, or cupcake was released, HTC released the HERO. One of its (if not its first) phones with Sense UI overlayed on top. Gorgeous gorgeous sense! And it had the ability to sync facebook contacts with your phones contacts! Later the palm pre comes out, and its webOS features Synergy, which seamlessly melds all of its dedicated sources into one cohesive glossary. Your contacts had facebook info, yahoo info, and google contacts info. Then 2.0 is released with the droid. It begins to feature the very same concept, natively adding the ability to pull peoples facebook info into your contacts. Did people scream and shout: HTC did it first! Your making them useless! Your locking them out! No. You know why? Because google natively adding this functionality allows HTC to focus on other aspects of their UI, leading us to amazing innovation the the Leap screen and fully interactive widgets. The more google adds into Android, the more they continue to streamline the experience, the less companies like HTC and Sammy have to worry about. They focus their energies into making their phones stand out in more meaningful ways. Like HTC and their amazing widgets. Or Samsungs take on what a launcher should be, and how the notification shade should function (kudos to them on that too, cause android has needed that functionality since its release). Android will never lock down. It will always be open. Don’t stifle it from growing though. Allow it to blossom, and let other capitalize on its sucess and fine tune or add what they want. In the end, that’s what’s best for everyone.

I must say this is very weird news indeed. I can understand and totally support declaring minimum specs (had they done this before, we wouldn’t have the G1 so underpowered), but these are suspiciously high. Android was started with the goal of appeasing to a variety of devices, from low- to high-end, and these requirements pretty much banish anything low-end for the next couple years. It should take us a while to even call a 1 GHz phone a mid-tier, in fact. I can see this as a means of simplifying the excessive hardware diversity, but it’s also going against one of the project’s original goals.

It sounds like small screen (defined by Android as 3.0″ or less) support is being removed, and we’ll see a new resolution, “very high dpi” (xdpi?).

I think these “Low end” devices are the source of fragmentation. Most of them dont sell as well as the “high end devices” and the OS’s are the least likely to be ungraded. I think google is doing the right thing and pushing technology forward.

Daniel, you do know that there are current and yet to be released devices with 1.5 or 1.6 on them. That does not banish them from doing what they are intended to do, which is to serve a specific need for some end user!

Now the problem here that I see, is for the developers. having to support and potentially make updates to code from aOS 1.5 to 3+ !

The hardware specs of a device have absolutely nothing to do with the Android version they run, so I fail to see your reasoning. Case in point, the Xperia Android family: the X10 being a high-end device didn’t somehow make it help the progress and “innovation” of Android.

Name 5 phones coming out by fall, that are set to run Android, that don’t have these specs?

These specs aren’t high at all, they’re reasonable. I’m a G1 owner and i’m thinking about getting a Nexus since no other phone interests me on T-Mobile.

Mobile Technology works differently than computers. In the mobile world, after 6 months, it’s dead.

In the computer world, after a year, it’s dead.

You just have to get used to it. Software is advancing so rapidly that they need the hardware to be able to run it. You just have to get over it.

P.S. 3″ screens are very small by anyone’s definition.
P.S.S The hardware a phone runs have A LOT to do with the OS they can run.
P.S.S.S An Android’s life has very little to do with what Google wants to do with and more with what the XDA-Dev. community wants to do with it. If it’s a hit, it’s a hit. If it’s not, it’s not. People have got to move with the times.

If the rumours are true about the hardware requirements are true, I believe the thinking behind it is that because economies of scale & better manufacturing processes will mean 1Ghz processors will be in more entry level devices by the end of the year.

With ARM manufactures like Qualcomm, Texas Instruments, Samsung, etc all churning out 1Ghz processors at the moment, the sheer number of sales from the likes of HTC, Motorola & Samsung will mean these chips will become cheaper.

They’d also need to clear stock when the high end devices move onto dual-cores & 2Ghz processors.

i think thats kinda of terrible. While i do plan to upgrade to one of the higher end phones its sad to see that droid which i think started the whole android craze and sent it skyrocketing will not get this update

your completely right. i guess i worded that wrong its just that the droid had the highest sales of all the android based phones if im correct it beat the iphones 3gs sales so it brought it to the masses. Other than that it doesent bother me too much casue like i mentioned i want and will get a higher end phone

I wouldn’t put too much stock in this rumor. Android is “open source” and while it’s very clear that google runs the show, they can’t dictate what happens to the code once released. Now perhaps phones lacking a 1 ghz processor will not be ideal, especially if the target interface is going to be as graphically intensive as the new gallery, but that (I don’t think) would stop Motorola or HTC or whoever from at least creating some form of Gingerbread for their phones. Now that being said…Sprint has already said that it isn’t going to update it’s “older phones”-meaning the phones they were calling the hot new phones up until the EVO came out, are now dead to Sprint and wouldn’t be getting Gingerbread anyway. And Motorola is still on 1.5 for the majority of their phones, so when Gingerbread comes out, Motoblur devices will just be getting their eclair update, and then it will be another year for Froyo, then the few people left with cliqs and backflips can complain about Gingerbread.

Hopefully as Google expands the feature set of 3.0, they will include them in 2.X as well so Android can continue to be used on lower cost phones. Just because 3.0 will have a new UI doesn’t mean 3.X and 2.X can’t be compatible.

Having an N1, I’m glad my phone won’t be obsolete less than a year after I got it. However my buddy with a Droid can’t say the same. I know obsolescence is inevitable but obsolete within a year is a little crazy.

So, before the month old My Touch Slide I bought to replace my G1 gets 2.2, it’s an dinosaur? I’d not be happy. As a commenter said, less than a year? Microsoft and Apple aren’t as greedy. Bad, bad idea if Google is really going to introduce a new minimum that won’t support current phone hardware.

The MyTouch Slide was a dinosaur before it was even released. And greedy? Google doesn’t make any money off the OS itself, so I don’t think your comment is valid. If someone upgrades to a newer handset because of google’s spec requirements, android as a platform isn’t gaining a user, so google isn’t selling more ads or making more money.

most consumers dont even see the difference between 2.1 and 2.2. they dont read these blogs. they arent aware of it. they buy the phone as it is not knowing anything about rooting or much tech. they get iphones. they rely on the the companies to keep them up to date and when it comes they get it. if you have the know-how then you do it and there is nothing to complain about. you are mixing 2 different consumers together because you are a techie and see both sides to the spectrum. droid will get ota 2.2 in july. theyre fine. anyone that is with tmobile that cares about updates from android either has a g1, nexus 1, or the slide which are all rootable. i dont see techies buying any clique phones and if they did they are lacking knowledge of tech. most of the comments on this article are people that are not involved and are worried about not getting updates(just for the sake of “ITS NEW I WANT IT”) or werent smart enough when they bought their phones. it all comes down to knowledge.

The Slide was a fossil long before it even came out. With it’s anemic hardware, this phone could barely be considered an upgrade from a G1. Oh well, hopefully this has taught a lot of people that just cause T-Mo calls it a “flagship” phone – doesn’t make it so.

And hopefully now with the new minimum specs required T-Mo will have no choice but to stop releasing lame-ass kiddie phones for their Android offerings.

This will not make me happy. My Milestone is only a few months old and doesn’t meet that requirement. (and, at least as of yet, doesn’t do custom ROMs)

Part of the reason I bought an Android phone to replace my last phone (Moto Q) was that MS had almost completely abandoned the device and its older OS. If Google abandons the Milestone so ridiculously early then I guess my next phone will have to be a Blackberry or (shudder) an Apple….

Welcome to the tech world my friend. Phones, laptops, cars, computers, everything eventually gets outdated in a second. If things didn’t than other great products wouldn’t be coming out. Sure, it’s sad to see that the Droid may not be getting 3.x but hey, contracts will be ending and newer and greater phones will be out.

I can understand you guys getting angry about your phone not being able to support Gingerbread, but Google isn’t not letting you get it because they’re mean, they’re doing it because they think those phones won’t run smooth enough for the modern day consumer to be happy, especially it 3.0 uses a lot of Ram and low-end phones can’t handle it. Yeah phones like the Original Droid, Legend, and Slide may be able to run it, but it would be laggy enough that they won’t put it out officially. If you are tech-y enough to want 3.0, then you are tech-y enough to either upgrade to a longer lasting high-end phone, or Root.

Also it’s kind of your fault if you get a mid-range phone and it becomes outdated quick. I don’t want to sound mean, but the higher-range the device, the longer it will last, and how long do you people expect to last with the rate Google is releasing updates, and when you get a phone that’s less then 1Ghz when that’s been the standard for phones for months now. That’s like getting a phone without a camera. Most of the phones released in the last month or 2, and that are going to be released in the next few months have at least a 1Ghz processor…

What you’ve said is true of the US market, and while I can’t speak for the rest of the world, I can say that here in Canada the only available phone I’m aware of that meets those requirements is the Nexus One, and that’s only available directly from Google.

My phone, the Milestone, is still the best performing Android phone available from my carrier, and I’m not aware of any of the others offering anything better.

So, I bought the best Android phone that was available here, not even four months ago and now I’m being told it may not be supported by the OS past this fall? Yeah, that bugs me juuust a little…

Yeah, I guess I was kind of gearing it towards the US market. I try to, but I don’t really pay attention to carriers from Canada and other countries as much because they don’t apply to me.

I was mainly talking to US customers where there are both High-end to low-end phones on there carrier and they are getting angry at Google for “waiting until they bought a mid-range phone”, but if you bought the best phone for your carrier and aren’t eligible for Gingerbread then it’s not your fault it’s your carrier’s. If your carrier isn’t going to give you a good phone then you may have to shell out the money and just get a phone that works with your carrier like the Nexus One or the Galaxy S(can’t remember the AT&T name for it).

But it won’t stop working Dave! I’m in the same boat with a Droid… But I knew that going in. I am stuck for 18 mo. before I am eligible for an upgrade. Does that mean that I am not going to enjoy every last oz. of those 6 oz. of goodness? Hell No! Chin Up Man!

Are you telling me that the DROID wasn’t high-end. Even now, it still is high end but now apparently google is not going to let it get to 3.0. It started at 2.0 and is going to end at 2.2. What are Eric Shmidt and Andy Rubin smoking. I got a DROID from costco instead of my old iPhone 5 a week ago and now its outdated. Now i’m going back to costco and returning it and i’m going to wait for the DROID X.
Sent from my iPhone 6.

the issues is not with google on the whole fragment issue. the problem is the phone makers such as htc,samsung,motorola, and etc. they are the ones billing the phones with theses lower end specs when really they should have stepped there game up some time ago. the nexus one launched at the begining of this year. but theses phone makers still insist on pushing out phones that dont have there specs up to par. but the nexus did it from the begining. google is pushing the os out and developing how they would like and what would best fit us the consumer. so what it comes down to is blame everything on your phone maker for not pushing out the lastest firmware for your device. so its just best to do the research on a phone before buying it and thinking its the hottest thing around when it becomes out dated by its replacement and left behind on 2 versions back of the firmware of the os. thats why i made sure the nexus was the phone for me before i paid full price for the thing after making the mistake with the mytouch.

These phones are made based upon the Carriers request for specific features and capabilities. I’m sure that those requests are predicated on targeted demographic and some actuary bringing a few computers to their knees while trying to figure out what will sell and what wont and to whom.

Bottom line is:
1) I do not blame Google – they make the base OS and the eco-system. (they did try to change the market but that little exercise failed! Why you ask…see #3)
2) I do not blame the phone Makers as they innovate to differentiate themselves in a competitive market and have to vie for business from the Carriers.
3) I blame the Carriers for EVERYTHING! The in your face marketing, the stiffening of consumers choice by not supporting an open phone market (in the name of locking in revenues for 2yrs), and overselling their current networks and having to impose data limits or tiered services and finally for not being visionary and futurists! Sure LTE is a future tech. but is it really? Hey Mr. Carrier, if you know that your 4G network is coming within 18 mos. why in the HELL are you ordering phones from manufactures that WILL NOT SUPPORT YOUR FUTURE NETWORK TECHNOLOGY and locking people into a 2 YR phone upgrade contact???????? Yea I’m looking at you VZW!

Sounds ok 2 me I had my G1 for a long time now, gonna get the new samsung galaxy s vibrant when launch. What I think T-mobile should do is relauch the mytouch slide and beef up the specs and make the OS stock, like how they did what the mytouch 3 when they added more memory and called mytouch 3.5.. but still can’t speak for the others. Could only be seeing 1GHZ Androids only phones or maybe some mid range or not at all.

GO FOR IT! I think Google should absolutely continue the development of Android without regard to the low end devices. You don’t see anyone supporting old 386 PCs, do you? I don’t think Nintendo continues to update N64…

Face it. This is technology. Devices will get better. Hardware will get better. The OS has to get better as well and take advantage of new hardware without bogging itself down and worry about being compatible with old devices. That’s just a good way of making a great OS crappy if it has to worry about backward compatibility.

But because it’s open source, that means feel free to make it work on your G1, but Google is not going to support it. And it also means it’s up to the developers to continue to develop apps that are compatible with all devices and OS versions. Google’s job is to make sure Android takes advantage of new hardware that is available to the general public so it is competitive against other OSs (aka iPhone…).

You bring up a good point. Intel faced had a similar situation. They chose to maintain backwards compatibility and ended up with a bunch of junk in the trunk. It ended up bogging them down and hindering their technological advancement, but at least legacy code still worked.

my point is just what you said- mobile technology is advancing very rapidly and trying to support old, outdated stuff would only bog down the advancement.

My biggest problem with Android right now (besides the update fiascoes) is the skins situation. They are shoved down your throat. If you want a good phone with good specs you are forced to have to a skin of the maker’s choice infected on the device. Google needs to enforce that these are optional.

They are at the Carriers discretion and the manufactures suggestion. When the buyer sit in the room to look at the various phone proposals from the various manufactures that responded to the Carriers phone request, the manufactures have to distinguish themselves in some manner. Otherwise the products will run together and only physical aesthetics will differentiate them. The current Raw Android vanilla UI is not really appealing for the average say, iPhone user!

I know that when I first saw my Droid at the Verizon store it was running STOCK 2.0.1 with only the stock Icons…. I was Highly un-impressed at the time, and a bit put off, so I began to look at the Winmo and BB phones. The HTC Winmo phone had sense type of UI on it, and looked both cool and friendly. Luckily, my new every two deal was not up at that time, so I waited and found out that there was some real power lurking behind that plain and sparse looking UI.

I like to believe that I am far from being a joe blow, but that should give you some idea of what and why things are what they are with all of the UI skins.

I think what Google is doing will help the phone manufactures and the carriers sell more phones (to the joe blows of the world) with less up front costs.

I have a question and would love if someone could answer me.
It said no gingerbread for the myTouch3G (hero), but I have the newer of them, the mT3G with the 3.5mm Jack, which I was told had a faster processor or idk..something.

Don’t worry… Chances are someone will throw their Nexus One across the room and parts will go flying everywhere in slow motion and you’ll beable to pick up their 1 ghz processor and put it in your Hero and you’ll get Gingerbread for phr33!

I think people are misreading the whole idea of the “new UX making OEM skins obsolete”. I serious doubt that google is going to set out to “ban” skins like sense and blur. I think what they mean is that gingerbread will have such a high level of customizability that manufacturers won’t be bogged down in some long term, bottum-up skinning process. I have no idea how they plan to do that, but my bet is that google is going to keep leaning towards openness, rather than away from it.

I also remember that during the big I/O, someone on the developer team was quoted as saying, “sure, Cyanogen will have no problem fitting this on the G1″, or something to that effect, over at android police.

So if you’re on one of the first-gen android phones, and you’re *still* not part of the root/mod community, it’s time to join us. Come on, you know you want to. Become one of us…

I don’t mean that making skins irrelevant means that they are going to actually ban them. By all appearances the new Blur and TouchWiz point to manufacturers seeing the writing on the wall where skins are concerned though and they are shifting from an overarching UX rewrite to more minor aesthetic tweaking. Gingerbread should just further drive home the futility in throwing significant research and development dollars into UX.

Agreed that anyone running on a sub GHz phone should be hitting up XDA and the like to get the lay of the land immediately as the rooting and modding community will soon be your best friend.

These specs do seem unusually high. JIT should up the memory requirements of android a bit but should lower the cpu requirements. The g1 for instance would probably have no problem handling froyo if it only had more memory. I don’t know what they could add to gingerbread to make it so demanding.

Alex, I suspect that it is all about Multi-Media! Video and video services that are driving the resource demands up. HD video takes quite a bit of both CPU, RAM and network bandwidth to process smoothly.

still remember that google is working with contract renews from older phones so even if you dont have the best of hardware every 6months you should be fine until the contract is up to get a new discounted phone. there is always rooting to get 2.1 and 2.2(within the next week) on older handsets. i think google knows what theyre doing. consumers just need to know what theyre doing when they buy their phone and know what they want. smarter consumers are less frustrated consumers ^_^

well this is interesting, the rumor is that the HTC vision that might be heading to T-mobile well be running a 800MHz dual core snapdragon and gingerbread so if it is true then they just want single core to be 1 GHz or higher.

ViktorY2K10

on a side note this rumored phone will be the reason why i will wait till my contract with my G1 is over. The Vibrant is a great phone but it is too iPhone like to me.

I think that this is astounding news ( if it is true)! And I am a recent Droid buyer! I am involved in and love tech. so I see this as being a natural progression. And with each iteration Android not only gets better, but more useful, more powerful, more supported, prevalent and more relevant! Android caught and surpassed Apples vaunted iPhone (in the US) all in the span of LESS than one year! Google with the N1, “They’ve gone to Plaid!” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NP6DXoNKITc

I just love being on the face of the wave that is going places FAST! Even if it means that I may need a new surf board periodically!

This brings back so many memories… Hehe, I remember when me and my friend held our phones side by side: my mytouch 3g vs. His nexus one… My mytouch 3g suddenly got Android 5.62 beta and he screamed and threw his Nexus one across the gym and parts went FLYING everywhere in slow motion.

I think that as long as old and lower end Android phones get at least 2.2 and are reliable enough in terms on performance and usability (on top of the ability to use Flash 10.1 mmmm) budget users like me will be extremely happy.

Just don’t stop support for those stuck in the older versions of Android now will you Google, not everyone can afford high end 1Ghz Snapdraggon phones!

512MB of Rom does make a little more sense, but 512MB of Ram isn’t that far out there. If HTC’s Sense UI finally runs smooth while leaving a good amount a Ram left over with 512MB, and Google is giving Android a Visual overhaul, then they may also require a set amount of Ram for a good user experience.

Makes no different to me if the Desire will get 3.x when it comes out. By the time it comes out my Desire might, just might, get an update to 2.2. By the time HTC get around to then releasing 3.x updates, I’ll be getting a new phone with a new contract.

There’s something to be said for HTC taking months and months and months to get updates out.

for once i think apple did it right. instead of leaving the iphone 3g out of ios 4 they just stripped some of the features it had like the wallpaper. google did this before with 2.1 when the moment hero and eris got 2.1 and did not have live wallpapers or the cooler app drawer. at least we got somthing. basically they are saying that nothing on gingerbread is compatible with a droid and i highly doubt that.

So gingerbread will be the “Vista” for Android? It was Vista that caused so many desktop owners to have to bump up their hardware since Vista was a resource hog and would not play nicely with older hardware.

If this happens to android it will either force existing handset owners to upgrade their phones or cause those sitting on the fence now to just sit and wait till they purchase a phone with the horsepower to run gingerbread. And for those who just purchased a phone recently that doesn’t meet the requirements (that being most of us) then we are $hit outta luck. My current phone MT3G is just short of a year old so I will either get left behind or have to ditch a fairly new phone to keep up with gingerbread. Not too cool either way.

News from Google: Mr Eric said there won’t be a Nexus Two since the current Nexus is already that powerful (phew). So to anyone who invested lots of money into the Googlephone, get ready because you guys will get updates first in line. :D

When I decided to NOT get the g1 when it arrived, I diet take into consideration the speed of the processor. I just didn’t like not having a 3.5 headphones jack. Now I own an evo, and pay attention to these things. Lucky me! Well, lucky me for the next six months, till me evo is a dinosaur.

I’m going to be very straight forward and to the point. Technology innovation is a fast paste market and if you are going to build a new OS that needs a certain set of specs to run I wouldn’t suggest making it compatible to older phones that could possibly hinder its progress. To be honest for hardware makes this would be a great challenge and opportunity to make faster more reliable phones. As each market (software and hardware) drive each other to new and better products this is a must. Android has a ways to go to catch up with RIM and Apple and I think they are finally laying down the law which should have been done awhile back so they can get that push in the right direction.

For those who are concerned about the lower end phones not getting the pleasures to use gingerbread, then update your phone. How hard is that, for some who may have to wait then wait by time you are able to upgrade the hardware and software will probably be even better. We can’t keep building for the past if we want to grow in the future. This principle stands for just about every technology created in this world.

I personally look forward to the release and the power strict guidelines. This will do better at making sure the hardware and software work seamlessly together. If you don’t believe that’s a big deal then Steve Jobs wouldn’t enforce it so much with there products. The hardware and software is centralized and a set of rules must be met. One of the reason iPhone does so well, that and there innovative marketing that I think google and service providers suffers severely from.

With gingerbread I would also like to see a more controlled app market that would entice more big developers to make apps for. Reason why google don’t get a lot of big developers like apple is because they don’t make a lot of money from the google app store and I don’t blame them, I wouldn’t make an app either if I wasn’t going to make a good profit from that market. It needs to be more control and its about time google did just that and lay the smack down and take some action to get their product to the next level.

I dont see this as a big deal, or any of that “fragmentation” for that matter. In fact I think it’d be a bettter idea to keep the different versions out on the market. Not everyone is going to need an android device with 3.0 on it. This way we can have diverse phones for a diverse market. devices with 1.5, 1.6, and maybe even 2.0 can be low to mid end smartphones, while devices with 2.1, 2.2 can stay that way or be upgradeable to 3.0 for the high end superphones.

Or look at it this way. What would we be if we all had the exact same firmware on all our phones? there would be no diversity amongst android devices, just like Apple. And we certainly dont want that now do we?

I know the Gingerbread specs are (were?) a rumor, but it would still be a little disappointing if true. I bought a Droid about 3 months ago – I REALLY wanted an N1, but not T-Mo service, and Google was dragging their feet in getting N1 to VZW (and then never did). I wanted a new phone for my honeymoon. The Droid wasn’t best but seemed to be very nice, and although I knew it would be outpaced in a matter of months, it was and is a solid phone. And one I have to use for 2 years. And this is where I am more than a little upset that others simply say “tech moves fast”.

Tech does move fast, but generally not quicker than a 5 year lifespan for most products. The comparisons of PS1′s to the 360 are hyperbolic at best. That’s a huge span of time between products. And yes, new phones come out weekly it seems, each one better than the last. Tech always works this way, but has never, in my experience, worked in such a way that the tech I bought last week, while outdated, isn’t powerful enough to do most of the new tech’s duties. A computer with 2GB of ram will run Win 7 as well as the computer with 3GB of ram, but probably just have trouble with more memory intensive apps. I don’t upgrade my computer often, and shouldn’t really have to upgrade my phone.

The second point here is that most of us are locked into contracts. I can buy a new motherboard and CPU one week for $100, and then turn around the next and spend another $100 on a different setup. My Droid was free, but for 2 years, my only real option is to save about $600 for a great new phone that is powerful enough to run the hot new setup.

None of this Google’s fault, however. What I believe has happened is this:
Google has been ramping up Android development, while phone manufactures, as they always have, want to stay just behind the curve. They want to pump out a new phone with just a little higher spec with a much higher price tag. But Android is taking leaps and bounds forward, and the tech behind it has to as well. I am guessing that the Droid was outdated for 2.0.1 when the phone was released. But having some standards in place for hardware will force manufacturers to keep up.

For those with much older or lower spec phones, I don’t think Gingerbread being locked out for you is a huge deal (if it came to be so) – if the OS version on the phone matters, then what’s inside the phone matters as well. Most older phones, and a lot of newer ones, are low-end devices. Google locking these out will also help to not have manufacturers pumping more low-end devices out and trying to run new software on them (ala the Vista fiasco on some low-end desktops being “certified”).

What needs to happen is a major change in voice carriers. No more contracts, no more bullshit plans. I don’t believe for a second that my Droid should cost anything over $200 out of contract.

I completely agree with you on the no contract thing. I hate contracts. I never get a phone with a contract, which gets to my other point. Now I know you don’t like hearing this but technology does move fast.

You are comparing phones to gaming consoles… Gaming Consoles never update for 5 years, like you said, but a phone with new technology comes out every 3 to 6 months. Now realize that you are whining about your phone being outdated when the phone came out November, and GingerBread won’t be coming out until October. Now I know you didn’t get your phone in November, but that is almost a year lifespan for the phone itself, you just got it 4 months in.

Also computers and phones are 2 different things. Think of it more like normal computers and Gaming computers. If you are not really into games a normal computer will last you a while, but if you want to play the latest and greatest games without lag, you are going to need to update your gaming rig every 6 months or so.

Now also realize that Android phones are being updated at this rapid pace because not only are we having big advancements in hardware,(ex. Dual-core and 2Ghz processors) but we are also getting an Android update every 3-6 months, but that will slow down once Google slows down to 1 update a year.

And yeah, I believe carriers purposely don’t push out the best hardware. Even if they are going to push out a flagship device in a month they are going to keep releasing “filler” devices just because they can.

Now yes the GingerBread minimum spec requirement rumor wasn’t true, but even if it was you could simply Root your phone. The G1 was released October 2008 and it is still being used by some people and running the latest software…

What is with you Motorola Droid owners whining about your phones. Do you people realize that GingerBread isn’t coming today? Your phone was released in November, and GingerBread will be released October. That’s a year lifespan, and until Google slows down to 1 update a year thats pretty good…

Less than 2 years of hardware life before the ‘high-end’ device drops and the bottom and is no longer supported for update? Even MicroSloth doesn’t do that sort of thing. This doesn’t seem to make sense.

Android 2.2 just got more efficient CPU usage (better JIT), more efficient memory usage, and the ability to run apps from the SD card. So what’s the rationale for the hardware floor on the next update? Even if they added a bunch of stuff, surely it would just put us all back where we were with Android 2.1, insofar as performance and such go.

I dont understand what Google is trying to accomplish by forcing out so many updates so fast. No phone runs 2.2 yet, except the N1. Now they’re talking about 2.3/3.0 coming out in 3 months? They are just fragmenting their user base terribly.